Cooperstown Townsite Company

To promote the building of a town the Cooperstown Townsite
Company was formed in 1882. This company immediately platted the
town, which was named Cooperstown, and filed its plat on October 26th of
that year, only 12 days before the November 7th election which was to
decide the location of the county seat. Cooperstown won the
election and became the county seat.

According to the original plat, Cooperstown was laid out
with its streets running north and south and numbered beginning from the
west side. The avenues were east and west and were given names.
These included the names of members who composed the Townsite Company.
Rollin Avenue was named for R. C. Cooper

Lenham Avenue for N. L. Lenham of the Lenham Elevator
and Lumber Company. This company consisted of George Lenham,
president, N. L. Lenham, general manager, who were brothers, and Louis
Lenham, their father who was treasurer. Burrell Avenue was named
for J. M. Burrell who was a member of the Townsite Company and who, with
George L. Lenham, organized the first bank at Cooperstown. Roberts
Avenue for Mr. C. A. Roberts who was also one of the owners of the
Townsite Company. Mr. Roberts was also along on the organization
of the Sanborn, Cooperstown and Turtle Mountain Railroad. He was
also identified with the Fargo Southern Railway, The Fargo Street
Railway, Fargo Iron Works, Cooperstown Elevator Company, Yellowstone
National Park Improvement Company, and was a member of the firm of
Stanford and Company, flour and feed merchants at Fargo. Foster
Avenue for Foster who surveyed the town lots

Hobart and Louis Avenues whose authorship is not known,
Odegard Avenue for Mr. Odegard, a merchant and Howard Avenue for Howard
Oviatt, a big landowner in Griggs County

In the liquidation of the partnership of the Cooper
brothers in 1886, R. C. Cooper purchased T. J. 's interest in the
Townsite Company for $9000.00.

The Townsite Company had planned to have the Court House
on the hill where the Water Tower stands. But there was some
disagreement among the county commissioners when the Courthouse was to
be built. The Cooper Brothers then platted the "Cooper Addition"
south of the first plat, and then offered the County Commissioners any
block of it they chose free plus one thousand dollars in cash when
building completed.